Did anyone else watch the YouTube debates and notice this??

[thisisauserid]

COOPER: Senator Obama, the laws banning interracial marriage in the United States were ruled unconstitutional in 1967. What is the difference between a ban on interracial marriage and a ban on gay marriage?

OBAMA: Well, I think that it is important to pick up on something that was said earlier by both Dennis and by Bill, and that is that we've got

Comments

[nekrenas]

If he proposes that the state only recognizes civil unions, and the designation of marriage is left to private institutions, then he'll be making a lot of sense. I doubt that's what he's saying though.

[choiceofthemind]

So Mr. Obama, I suppose you wouldn't have a problem if blacks weren't allowed to "marry" whites, but that the two could still enter into civil unions that conferred the same rights as marriage? Mmmm?

I love the whole line of reasoning that goes: " Ok, gay couples should have the same rights as married couples; just call it a civil union instead of a marriage. I mean the rights are equal so it doesn't really make a difference anyway."

If it doesn't make a difference, then why not call gay unions marriage?

[everlastingyea]

I think he's just trying to separate church and state. A civil union, recognized by the state, would offer all the same civil, legal rights as a religious/legal marriage - and hey that's all that really matters anyway. He obviously has no power to overrule the Vatican, if the Catholics don't want to recognize gay marriage, there's nothing politicians in the states can do about it. But they can offer the same legal rights, which again, is mostly the issue anyway. Religiously accepted homosexual matrimony? That's another battle, one that is not Obama's.